The tweets have since been deleted with many accounts recovered, though some were left blank while waiting for their owners to re-enter their name and profile picture.

Image copyrightTwitter

Image caption
The Matalan page looked empty after the hackers’ posts were deleted – though retweeted posts from Musk’s SpaceX company remained

Scammers targeted several “verified” accounts (denoted with a blue tick) and changed the name and image to that of Mr Musk.

The tweet then urged users to part with a small amount of Bitcoin – a digital currency – to supposedly receive more.

Several other verified accounts, which were also taken under the scam artists’ control, appear in the tweet’s comments to claim that they have received Bitcoin from Mr Musk.

A Twitter spokesperson told the BBC it “doesn’t comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons”.

Image copyrightTwitter

Image caption
This is how the scam appeared in Twitter feeds before it was removed – the scam details have been blurred

Verified

By using accounts with Twitter’s own verification mark (a blue tick), it makes the account appear legitimate at first glance and thus may fool the reader into thinking it is official.

But many of the posts still bear the hallmarks of classic scams – including frequent spelling errors (see “Bitcoic” and “suppoot” in the above tweet) and a request for money.

The account handle itself is also incorrect – a legitimate tweet from Elon Musk would read @elonmusk beside the blue tick. In this case, it reads @patheuk – as the account originally belonged to film distributor Pathe UK.

Clicking on any of the links in the scam sends users to a page where they are urged to send anywhere from 0.1-one Bitcoin (£491-£4,491) to the scammers – with the promise that they would receive one-10 Bitcoin as a reward.

Victims do not receive any Bitcoin after sending money to the scam artists.

The scam is made to seem more trustworthy as various other compromised accounts reply to the tweet claiming that it works.

The Pathe UK Twitter account was hacked this morning by an unknown third party. A series of unauthorised tweets were sent for which we apologise. The issue has now been resolved and we have taken back control of our account.